I have prepared the following series of screenshots to show what I mean. I have highlighted the focused element to make it more obvious. The TAB key is expected to go to the logically “next” element; however on this page, it skips an element unexpectedly. The result is that pressing Space, intending to check the checkbox, posts the question instead.

2 Answers
2

The CW checkbox is also skipped when tabbing from body to tags. Looks like title, body, tags, and submit button all have tabindex attribute specified, but not for CW or e-mail check boxes. I've never understood why any webdeveloper uses tabindex. In this case, like over 99% of cases, you get the correct tab order just by letting the browser figure it out.

Jeff, when you guess the user intentions WRONG it's MUCH WORSE than if you don't try to guess them AT ALL.
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romkynsAug 22 '10 at 13:22

Wouldn't it be better to move the notify ... of new answers line below the Post your questions button (when it exists, of course)? Then it can stay in the natural tab order (i.e. not bug people who don't need it), and still would not confuse people who expect the screen order to be the tab order.
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Paŭlo EbermannJun 28 '11 at 15:05

What happened to principle of least surprise?
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DoorknobMar 25 '14 at 18:31